Stefan Salvatore
Stefan Salvatore (b. 1490s) was the second son of Giuseppe, Conte di Salvatore and his wife, and younger brother to Damon. The contessa died a couple of years after Stefan's birth, which he would later cite as a reason for Damon's hatred of him, believing that Damon blamed him for it. He and Katarina von Swartzschild (whom he later learned to be a vampire) fell in love during her stay at the estate, and their fathers spoke of marriage plans before Damon's return from the University. Damon and Katarina also fell in love, leading to a rift between the two brothers. In an attempt to reconcile them, Katarina faked her death. However, Stefan and Damon instead killed one another with Katarina's blood in their systems, Changing them into vampires. After awaking in his tomb, Stefan attempted to return to the estate, but ran after the servants screamed and asked for a priest. On a dark side street of Florence, Stefan decided not to feed on human blood. He decided to live beyond the gates of the city, feeding on animals, until his life was threatened by Damon and he departed. The two crossed paths a handful of times in the following centuries, when Damon would again threaten him. In 2013, Katarina lured Stefan to Fell's Church, where he fell in love with Elena Gilbert, whom he and Damon, who had followed him, unwittingly turned into a vampire. The brothers were forced to reconcile and work alongside each other to defeat her and defend the town. After Elena's death, the two moved to Florence, returning to combat Klaus, which resulted in Elena's resurrection. Stefan helped Elena adapt to being alive again, and was imprisoned in the Shi no Shi by Shinichi and Misao after being enticed with the chance to become human again. There, a kitsune who was released during his imprisonment gave him a bouquet with the power to strip vampirism. Upon being rescued, Damon accidentally used the bouquet, leading to conflict between the two. After Stefan recovered from his ordeal, he assisted in defeating Inari Saitou and the kitsune twins. In the new world, Stefan erased himself from the memories of those around him after blaming himself for Elena's need for a blood transfusion. Biography Childhood Stefan was born to Giuseppe, Conte di Salvatore and his wife between 1496 and 1499, as their second son. The contessa did not fully recover from Stefan's birth, dying when Stefan was aged three. Stefan speculated that this was the cause of his older brother Damon's hatred of him, and that he blamed him for his mother's death.Stefan Salvatore: It was always that way, as long as I can remember. Maybe it was because my mother never really recovered from my birth. She died a few years later. Damon loved her very much, and I always had the feeling that he blamed me. (The Awakening - Chapter 13) After the contessa's death, Giuseppe would get drunk and threaten to beat Stefan. However, Damon would take have him direct his anger at himself instead, taking the beatings for him.Stefan Salvatore: I remember something else! From when I was very young, maybe three or four years old. My father had a terrible temper, especially right after my mother died. And back then, when I was little, and my father was furious and drunk, Damon would deliberately get in between us. He'd say something obnoxious and – well, my father would end up beating him instead of me. I don't know how I could have forgotten about that. (The Return: Midnight - Chapter 43) Stefan was given a proper education, learning etiquette and dancing from Marino."Signore Marino,' Stefan said through his teeth, wondering how Damon was able to get under his skin every time — today with a reference to their old tutor of etiquette and dancing —''" (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 2) He was taught to embrace his place in the nobility of Italy and as a member of the Salvatore family,"His tutor had often said it: ''An aristocrat should dress as befits his position. If he does not, he is showing contempt for others. Everyone had a place in the world, and his place had once been among the nobility." (The Awakening'' - Chapter 3) which he did to please his father. Despite Giuseppe's insistence that Stefan and Damon be respectable, he regularly took mistresses younger even than Stefan and made several disastrous investments.He was still Damon, and he'd be a lot happier without the weight of all that hatred and prejudice and cruelty. He wouldn't keep remembering his youth and the other young blades who'd mocked his father for being an old fool, with his disastrous investments and his mistresses younger than his own sons. Neither would he endlessly dwell on his own childhood, when that same father had beaten him in drunken rages when he neglected his studies or took up with objectionable companions. And, finally, he would not go on savoring and contemplating the many terrible things he'd done himself." (The Return: Nightfall - Chapter 34) Becoming a vampire One summer between 1515 and 1518, while Damon was at University, Baron von Swartzschild brought his daughter Katarina to the Salvatore estate to recover from her prolonged illness. Stefan and Katarina fell in love, and, one night beside the fountain, she confided in him that she was a vampire and told her story about how she had been Changed by Klaus.The Awakening - Chapter 5 He accepted her identity and promised to keep it a secret.The Awakening - Chapter 3 Soon, Giuseppe and the baron spoke of marriage plans for the two of them.'''Stefan Salvatore: When I see how you look at Damon. Before he came home, you and I were together every day. My father and yours were pleased, and spoke of marriage plans. But now the days grow shorter, summer is almost gone—and you spend as much time with Damon as you do with me. The only reason Father allows him to stay here is that you asked it. But why did you ask it, Katherine? I thought you cared for me. (The Awakening - Chapter 9) When Damon returned to the estate from the University, he told Giuseppe that he was refusing to go back, an argument that Stefan witnessed. Damon also became close to Katarina, spending as much time with him as she had with Stefan, who became jealous, especially upon learning that she had told him that she was a vampire. The brothers forced her to choose between them, and she declared that she would give an answer the following Saturday.The Awakening - Chapter 9 On the Friday, Katarina arrived in Stefan's bedroom and exchanged blood with him, leading him to believe that he had been chosen.The Awakening - Chapter 11 On the Saturday night, Katarina told them that she had exchanged blood with, and wished to be with, the both of them, and had had her maid make talismans for them. The two almost came to blows before she stood between them, and she ran away in tears.The Awakening - Chapter 13 The following day, Stefan found Katarina's newest dress filled with ashes near a tree, and her ring on a rock a short distance away, leading him to believe that she had exposed herself to the Sun. He also found a note explaining that she could not bear to cause strife between the two brothers. Damon appeared behind him, read the note, and attempted to take Katarina's ring from him. The two struggled, insulting and blaming one another, and ran to the house before engaging in a duel as their father shouted from a window. Damon stabbed him, but, as he lay dying, he lifted his own sword and stabbed him in the heart.The Awakening - Chapter 14 Life as a vampire As the two still had Katarina's blood in their systems, they began the Change. They awoke in their tomb, where they had been laid down side-by-side. They were too weak to fight given the small amount of Katarina's blood that they had, and Damon ran off into the night. Stefan, who found Katarina's ring in his pocket, went home, where the servants screamed and called for a priest. He ran into the dark, blaming himself for forcing Damon to become a vampire. In the dark side-streets of Florence, Stefan made several vows regarding how he used his Power and how he treated humans."Long ago, in the dark side streets of Florence, starving, frightened, and exhausted, Stefan had made himself a vow. Several vows, in fact, about using the Powers he sensed within himself, and about how to treat the weak, blundering, but still-human creatures around him." (The Struggle - Chapter 16) He decided to feed only on animals as Katarina did, eventually choosing to live beyond the city gates in order to do so.Stefan Salvatore: I was living beyond the city gates by then, half starved, preying on animals, an animal myself. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) Stefan knew that Damon had joined one of the Free Companies, but went a stretch of time without hearing anything of him.Stefan Salvatore: For a while he joined one of the Free Companies, ruthless mercenaries whose business was to rob and plunder. He wandered across the country with them, fighting and drinking the blood of his victims. I was living beyond the city gates by then, half starved, preying on animals, an animal myself. For a long time, I heard nothing about Damon. (The Awakening - Chapter 14) Behind the scenes *Although Stefan transforms into a falcon in The Struggle, it is a hawk that he can transform into in The Return: Nightfall. However, given L.J. Smith's confusion between falcons and hawks (Talon is referred to as both multiple times) it is uncertain which is correct. Appearances *''The Awakening'' *''After Hours'' *''The Struggle'' *''The Fury'' *''Dark Reunion'' *''Blood Will Tell'' *''The Return: Nightfall'' *''The Return: Shadow Souls'' *''The Return: Midnight'' *''Evensong: Paradise Lost'' *''Evensong: The War of Roses'' Notes and references Category:Salvatore family Category:Vampires Category:Italian individuals Category:Fell's Church residents Category:15th century births Category:16th century changes Category:Changed by Katarina von Swartzschild Category:Elena Gilbert's romantic interests